The retail merchandising of consumer products is often a very highly competitive field. The merchandising scheme and advertising efforts for a successful consumer product are frequently the reason it generates more sales than other comparable products.
A common tool in the merchandising and advertising of consumer products is a point of sale display at the retail store where the product is purchased by the consumer. The ability to distinguish one brand from competing brands and gain the purchaser's attention is the ultimate goal of advertising. Point of sale displays enable a particular brand or product to be distinguished from other comparable products also available at the same store or retail outlet.
Specifically, beverages such as juices, soft drinks, and beer are often sold in individual or multi-pack cans or bottles at grocery, convenience, and other retail stores. Multiple competing brands of bottles or cans of beverages are commonly displayed side-by-side at the store. Because the beverage industry is highly competitive, one way for manufacturers, bottlers, and distributors to gain an advantage is by attracting the consumer or purchaser's attention to their particular brand at the point of sale.
For these reasons, point of sales displays are effective as a marketing and advertising tool to differentiate one brand from a competing brand. The point of sale displays are commonly enlarged replicas of the bottle, can, or package of the particular brand including its identifiable design, color scheme, or logo. For example, an enlarged paperboard cylinder decorated with a particular brand's bottle or can design is often found in the grocery or convenience store aisle where the competing beverages are stocked and displayed. The consumer's attention is drawn toward the display which is a replica of that particular brand's bottle or can found on the nearby shelf thereby gaining a competitive marketing advantage over the other brands.
However, store managers have found that the advertising displays of the type previously described are bulky and when not in use inconvenient for both storage and transportation. Furthermore, because the advertising displays are bulky enlarged cylinders, they are subject to an increased likelihood of damage thereby detracting from their appearance, useful life, and effectiveness as an advertising and marketing tool.
The advertising displays by design are large in order to attract the attention of the consumer. Such an advertising display can be as large as four feet in height and two feet in diameter for a replica cylindrical beverage can display. The display is typically constructed of a relatively inexpensive paperboard and includes a minimal amount of internal support structure because its effectiveness as an advertising tool is determined by its outward appearance and not its structural integrity.
Problems arise, however, because of the size of the display when it is transported from the manufacturer or distributer to the store, from location to location within the store, or from store to store. The displays require careful handling and packaging because they include little or no internal structural support to withstand damaging loads imparted to the display during transportation and storage.
Because the advertising displays of the type described are bulky and require specialized handling to avoid damage, they are often avoided or insufficiently utilized by the store manager who may be unwilling to devote the required effort to protect and use the advertising display.
As evidenced by the above background, the use of enlarged point of sale advertising displays has been curtailed due to the inherent drawbacks of such displays; namely, their bulk, size, and specialized storage and transportation requirements. However, when used the advertising displays have proven to be a beneficial component of the advertising and marketing plans for consumer products. Therefore, a need exists for an advertising display which is effective in attracting the consumer's attention at the point of sale and can be both transported and stored without special handling to avoid damage to the display.